| THE CONSTITUTION, PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND ROADS by Dr. William Taber, NYSALB Trustee What is government's responsibility to libraries? Those who understand the fundamentals of a healthy democracy usually have little trouble in recognizing that the people's unfettered access to knowledge is necessary if the center of gravity of self-government is to stay with the people and not to be ceded, bit by bit, to political specialists or elites of various kinds. A reluctance by political leaders to actively encourage the public's free access to knowledge is one of the warning signs of a deteriorating democracy. On the other hand, recognition of this necessity (as implied -finally!- in the Governor's recent proposed budget for the long with-held "full" funding of public libraries) is a more healthy sign. The debates in the Federalist papers about accepting our Federal Constitution certainly recognize that the need for an informed public includes not just their ability to keep up with the daily news but also to have a longer vision of mature understanding and awareness --- usually based upon the advantages of literacy (which potentially extends the horizons of individuals), and upon the availability of information and thought that can be accessed by that literacy. Both are needed; for the value of education by itself is diminished if the adult world is impoverished intellectually. And, without adequate public libraries, that world is impoverished for many. A purpose of democratic government is to accomplish certain things for the benefit of all and to do so in ways that are more effective and efficient when done by a central directive than they are when left to scattered efforts by individuals. This does not mean that governmental support of libraries is a constitutional right. It does establish, however, that public libraries are among the practical necessities of the democracy envisioned by our Constitution; for those words were written to guide a strong, active, and informed people. Without such people, without the institutions that form and support the character of such people, the words of our Constitution have little value. We know this from history; for those words have been borrowed by many countries where they have co-existed with dictatorship and tyranny. The practical necessity for public libraries is analogous to that of roads and highways which are also the responsibility of a democratic government. When the colonists first spread into New England, they took advantage of the rivers of that well-watered landscape and used them as a means of often precarious travel and transport. Soon, however, they reached the stage when trails between waterways and among settlements had to be upgraded to a system of roads. Adventurous travel was replaced by regular transport of goods and people, a necessity for the economic health and internal cohesion of the growing colonies. Road construction and maintenance became a public responsibility and duty for the benefit of all. Other colonies went through similar evolution, as did New York State over a century and a half later when it gradually advanced from a crude private ownership of toll roads charging for access to recognition of the public responsibility for such a resource. Public libraries are part of a road structure for the knowledge and culture that exist. Physical transport in modern society is no longer a problem, but the roads and trails that are poor, unmarked, rutted, misleading or carry a prohibitive toll for many are often those of information and knowledge, of participation in resources of literature and culture. Like public roads, public libraries reward directly those who make the effort to use them and indirectly all of us. NYSALB TRUSTEE |